NA TURE 



185 



THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 1876 



GOVERNMENT AID TO SCIENTIFIC 

 RESEARCH 



WE publish below a correspondence which we cannot 

 but regard with the greatest satisfaction ; Govern- 

 ment has at last seen it to be its duty to act upon the re- 

 commendation of the Duke of Devonshire's Commission, 

 and make a substantial contribution towards the endow- 

 ment of pure scientific research. We need scarcely remind 

 our readers that from the first we have maintained that such 

 endowment is the duty and interest of civilised states. But 

 indeed it is long since the British Government practically 

 acknowledged this to be the case ; the grant of 1,000/. 

 yearly to the Royal Society for purposes of research was 

 first made twenty-five years ago. We hope the additional 

 4,000/., making up 5,000/., will be put to such excellent 

 use that Government will not only renew the grant at the 

 end of the five, years, but see the necessity of increas- 

 ing it to at least the sum suggested when the 1,000/. 

 was first granted. No doubt the first to bring the 

 duty of the State in respect to science prominently be- 

 fore the public in this country was the late Colonel 

 Strange. He broached his scheme many years ago 

 at the Norwich meeting of the British Association, and by 

 his earnest and untiring advocacy he soon gained to his 

 views most of the scientific men of the country, and Go- 

 vernment became so impressed with the importance of the 

 subject that the Science Commission was appointed in 

 1 870. The substance of the various Reports of this Com- 

 mission is familiar to our readers ; the mass of evidence 

 it has elicited has probably done more than anything else 

 to enlighten the country and our Government as to the 

 high importance and wide extent of scientific research. 

 We can hardly expect Government to carry out all at 

 once the recommendations of the Commissioners as to 

 the extent to which unremunerative research should be 

 assisted ; but no doubt the 4,000/. which is to be annu- 

 ally entrusted to the administration of the Royal Society 

 for the next five years, is the first, partly tentative step 

 towards this. Then there were the strong words of Lord 

 Derby, at Edinburgh, last December (see Nature, vol. xiii. 

 p. 141) ; " I think," he said, " that more liberal assistance 

 in the prosecution of , original scientific research is one of 

 the recognised wants of our time." As the natural out- 

 come of all this, and no doubt mainly as the result of 

 the recommendations of the Science Commission, the 

 Government has resolved to try what good results are 

 likely to follow from a first and moderate endowment. 

 We think we may safely prophecy that the result is 

 likely in time to lead to the increase of the grant to at 

 least the sum proposed to be entrusted to the Royal 

 Society twenty-five years ago. 



The difference between this new grant of 4,000/. and 

 that of the old 1,000/., should be noted. In the case of 

 the latter the money had to be expended on instruments, 

 &c., by the recipients, whereas in the case of the new grant 

 the endowment may be personal ; the grants may be made 

 to individuals not merely to provide themselves with 

 apparatus, but as a means of sustenance while prosecuting 

 Vol. XIV.— No. 348 



scientific researches incompatible with the pursuit of an 

 ordinary means of livelihood. And here we should re- 

 mark that we never advocated in these columns the 

 wholesale selection of untried youths for the receipt of 

 such endowments, nor is it meant thus to allocate the 

 grant which has been made. The selection will be 

 made from among those who by the work which they 

 have already done have proved themselves capable of 

 making a profitable use of the endowment. 



Another point in the conditions attending the new 

 grant we notice with pleasure, namely, the reconstruction 

 of the Government Grant Committee of the Royal Society, 

 so as to include the Presidents of the principal Scotch 

 and Irish Societies, as well as those of the chief London 

 scientific bodies. Thus the interests of Scotland and 

 Ireland are as well cared for in this matter as those of 

 England. 



The Royal Society has now a great responsibility 

 resting upon it. What with the annual 4,000/. from 

 Government, in addition to the previous 1,000/., and 

 the 6,000/. which Mr. Jodrell has entrusted to its adminis- 

 tration, it will have critical and important duties to science 

 and to the country to perform. We are sure it will take 

 every care so to allot these funds as to prove that it has 

 only the interests of pure science at heart, and is quite 

 competent to carry out the intentions of Government as 

 well as of private donors. 



The following is the correspondence in relation to the 

 grant which has passed between Government and the 

 Royal Society : — 



Letter to the President of the Royal Society. 



Science and Art Department, South Kens'mgton, S. fV., 

 April 29, 1876 



Sir, — Her Majesty's Government have had under their 

 consideration the question of giving some further aid to 

 scientific research. 



As you are aware a sum of 1,000/. is voted annually by 

 Parliament " to enable the Royal Society to defray the 

 expenses of scientific investigations considered by a Com- 

 mittee of the Society to be worthy of such aid." This 

 Committee, called the Government Grant Committee, 

 consists of the President and Council of the Royal Society 

 and twenty-one other gentlemen of scientific eminence 

 not members of the Council ; and the Grant is expended 

 in aiding investigators to provide themselves with appa- 

 ratus and assistants, but never in personal payments to 

 the investigators themselves. 



It is proposed that this action of the State should be 

 extended, and that further aid should be given to research 

 by according permission to the Government Grant Com- 

 mittee to recommend in certain cases the payment of 

 personal allowances to gentlemen during the time they 

 are engaged in their investigations ; that a sum of 5,000/., 

 including the above-mentioned 1,000/., should be taken 

 annually ; that the Royal Society should be invited to aid 

 Her Majesty's Government with their advice and assist- 

 ance in its appropriation and expenditure, and as to the 

 sums to be granted in each case, reporting annually to 

 the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education on 

 the progress made and the desirability or non-desirability 

 of renewing the grant ; and that this experiment should 

 be tried for five years. 



The Administration and expenditure of the grant, and 

 accountability for it, should we consider be vested in the 

 Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council 

 on Education by which the vote will be taken ; and all 

 instruments purchased for investigations should be left in 

 its charge when no longer required. 



